The New Teacher chp. 2

The New Teacher ~ chapter 2

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Sakura didn't pay attention to any of the classes, just sat in her seat and stared out the window.

There was something about that new teacher, Mr. Hatake. She couldn't really put her finger on it, but it most certainly was something.

She snapped back to reality by Ino's high pitched voice screaming into her ear. "Hey, what's your problem Ino-pig!?" Sakura automatically yelled back.

Ino just smirked and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Nothing, I'm just wondering what you're daydreaming about?"

Sakura shrugged and looked outside the window again. "Nothing.." she mumbled and tried her best to ignore the girl standing in front of her desk.

"Sure?" The tone in Ino's voice were sneaky and teasing. "I bet I can guess what it is." "Then guess. What am I daydreaming about?" "It's that new substitute teacher! Mr. Hatake." "No it's  not! Why would I daydream about him? He's just so.. So old!"

Ino laughed by Sakura's changing face colour and slapped her palm on the desk. "You think he's hot! Admit it! It's nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone in our class thinks he's hot. Even Hinata."

Sakura looked behind her on the shy girl sitting on a chair twiddling with her fingers. "She sort of made that up on her own, all I said was that he wasn't that bad looking" she mumbled under her breath and blushed.

"Ino, stop bullying Hinata." "Ok ok, maybe Hinata doesn't think he's hot. But I can tell you this much: every single girl in this class think of him as attractive or good looking and 80% thinks he's hot. So admit it! You're one of that 80%!"

"Fine!" Sakura stood up, angry and annoyed at that loudmouthed blonde girl teasing her all the time, so she practically yelled out so that the whole class could hear it.

"I think Mr. Hatake is hot!" Just as she finished the sentence the classroom door closed with a small dump and a male character stepped in to the room. "Well, thank you Miss Haruno, you're not so bad yourself. Now If you could please sit down and keep your school-girl-fantasies to yourself I think that would be best for the whole class."


Sakuras mouth dropped open and she stared at the silver-haired man. 'Oh my god! He heard me! This is so embarrassing! I'm gonna kill that stupid Ino' She glared over at her friend who just sat down laughing hysterically. "Miss Yamanaka, shut your piehole and open your poetry book on page 14."

Rest of the class went by without much more embarrassment for Sakura's sake. She just sat at her desk with her head buried in the book and refused to meat the teachers eyes when spoken too.

Finally the bell rang and signalised end of the school day. Everyone gathered up their things and headed for the door, Sakura couldn't get out fast enough. "Miss Haruno, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to have a word with you." Kakashi said before she even got the chance to get near the door. She sighed and nodded.

"Yes, Mr. Hatake." Ino giggled as she passed her and winked. "Go get him girl." "I am so going to kill you for this!" Sakura growled and glared at the girl's back.

- - -

"Please sit down." "If this is about the comment earlier, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean it! It was all Ino's fault. She tricked me into do it, you see -" "It's not about the comment. Please, just sit."

He looked at her calmly and gave a hand gesture towards the chair. She blushed and sat down. "Sorry.." "I've been told by Mrs. Yakanochi that you have difficulties in poetry class? Is that so?"

Sakura frowned and looked at him questioningly. "Uhm, I guess. I have a little trouble paying attention to the subject. I'm not really that interested in poetry so I have difficulties keeping up with the rest of the class. I don't understand that much of it. But I thought I was getting a passing grade, so this shouldn't really be any problem?"

Kakashi gave a small laugh and looked at her. "Well, your grade is fine, I guess, but it would be wise of you to start thinking on getting a better one, if you fail Poetry this year you will have to take this class again next year. And thinking about the tight schedule third-year students have, I don't think you'd make it."

Sakura bit her bottom lip and looked at him, a little concerned. "But, what should I do then? No matter how hard I study or try to pay attention I just don't understand any of it! I just don't."

Kakashi shrugged a little and closed the book he held in his hands. "Well, if you'd be interested I could give you private lessons after school."

Her eyes widened and she looked at him, almost as if he'd just asked her what colour her pants were. Well, this was just as bad. If she accepted him as her tutor Ino would never leave her alone and she would be tortured until the end of the world.

"I'm sorry, but I just.. I can't I don't have enough.. um.. time. I have work, and.. Homework. I don't think I could squeeze anything else in between! I'm sorry, I guess I just have to try harder."

Kakashi went silent for a moment before he nodded. "Of course. Let me know if you change your mind." Sakura smiled and rose from the chair. "I will, thank you." She bowed and hurried towards the door. "Bye."

- - -

"Now that was just weird." She stared back at her reflection in one of the big mirrors hanging on one of the walls in the martial arts academy gym. "Who the hell does he think he is? Trying to force me in to taking private lessons with him, on his first day!? How rude is that!? I'm not even failing! I just.." She closed her eyes and sighed. "Man this is so messed up.."

"Who are you talking to Sakura?" A group of kids had entered the gym and were now staring at their master with questioning eyes. "Are you feeling well?" a little girl asked hesitatingly.

"How long have you guys been there?" Sakura jumped up looking at them in shock. "Not very long." "But long enough" another one added.

They all nodded and Sakura sighed. "This is so embarrassing. Could this day get any worse?" "Probably not." "Hi Kiba!" the whole class chirped and ran towards the boy.

"Calm down kids, let's just start class. Now, I want you to stand in two straight lines!" Sakura smiled and him and mimed the words thank you, he just winked at her and placed himself in front of the group. Sakura stood beside him.

"Remember what we practised on last week? Well, we're gonna do the same thing today, but with more speed and noise. We are not taking any breaks until it's perfect!" She said in a determined voice. The class nodded and yelled in unison: "Yes, sensei!" She smiled at the young faces, all so focused.

- - -

One and a half hour later they all said goodbye to each other. Sakura managed to stop one of the boys before he left "Hey Toshiro, can I talk to you for a second?" "Yea sure, Sakura, what is it?" "I just wondered how your day was?" She smiled and took a firm grip on her bag swinging it over her shoulder.

"It was actually not that bad. When I first came to school I was scared that no one in my class would talk to me, but thankfully I ended up in the same class as Miya and Lee." "That's great!" They walked home together and Toshiro eagerly told her about his day and how he had made many new friends. They stopped at a crossroad and went each their way.

"For a moment their I thought he was your kid." Sakura screamed, turned around and punched the stranger in the face. "Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I didn't know it was you!!"

She screamed even higher when she saw the blood peeping out from between his fingers. "Oh my god! You're bleeding! I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry! It was an accident! I should start to learn recognising peoples voices. Oh my.. This doesn't look good."

She had been so startled by the mysterious manly voice sneaking up on her that she hadn't recognised that it was the substitute teacher, Kakashi.

"Someone should take a look at that." She mumbled with a concerned expression on her face. She took up her cell phone from her pocket and cursed.

"Everything is closed now." "It's ok, really, you shouldn't make such a big deal out of it." "But it is a big deal, it is! I just punched my teacher in the face for crying out loud!"

She looked at him in shock over his calm reaction. "You're coming home with me!" She said and took his hand, leading him straight to her house.

- - -

"Miss Haruno, you don't have to do this. I'm okay, really I am. Just calm down and let me go home." Kakashi sat in a black couch in the middle of the small living-room, holding a towel to his face.

"Oh shut up, the least I could do after punching you in the face is patching you up again." He sighed and shook his head. "Stop moving!" "Fine, fine." He laughed and looked at her with much interest in his gaze.

She was a peculiar person. Not easy to understand, but he had figured this much out: When she told you to do something, you better just do it. So he did. Didn't want to test how her temper was, as he could sense she was one of the fiery ones.

She gently wiped away the blood from his face, not too comfortable with wiping blood off of the face of her new teacher.

She felt so embarrassed and stupid for hitting him. "Can I ask you something?" She suddenly asked. He nodded, careful to not move too much. "Go ahead."

"Why did you think Toshiro was my kid?" "Well, the way you talked to each other, him telling you about his day and how you listened and care for what he had to say. It just seemed like it was some sort of mother instinct." She blushed and lowered her head so that the pink bangs covered her eyes.

"Toshiro's family moved here last week, he has two younger sisters, an older sister and his mother is very sick so he spends a lot of his time alone. I guess I just feel sorry for the boy. I don't want him to spend all his time alone not getting to have any fun." "You're a kind person, Miss Haruno." "Please, I feel old when you call me that! For now you can just call me Sakura."

She smiled at him, and she could swear he smiled back, but it was hard to tell by the mask covering up half of his face.

"Can I ask you something else?" She continued, putting away the wet cloth and finding some band-aids to put on the bruised and open wound right above his nose.

"Yes of course Mi.. Sakura." "Why do you wear that mask?" He broke out in a jolly laughter and gently shook his head.

"It's a habit I guess. I weren't the most confident child when I was a young boy, so I put on a mask and dressed as a Ninja everyday for school. By doing that I somehow felt invincible and no matter how much I got bullied by it I always kept telling myself that I was better than them because I was a ninja. Stupid thing really."

She smiled and put on the band-aids on the wound. "Now I wear it every time I start on a new adventure. Today my adventure was being new in town and starting my first day working on a new school."

"I don't think it's stupid." She said after a moment of silence. "I think it's great that you still do it, it makes you more mysterious I guess. I like it."

They sat there for a while just looking at each other, smiling. Suddenly he leaned towards her, that sudden move med her paralyzed and she felt her heart beat faster, not knowing what would come next she just leaned a little back and looked at him wide-eyed.

He stopped when their faces were inches apart, removed the mask from his mouth and just looked at her for a while. His hand moved past her and grabbed something.

"It's getting late, I should be going now" He said with a calm voice. She nodded, still paralyzed from being this close to him. His face had gone from smiling to dead-serious and she couldn't read his face anymore. Even his eyes were blank now and wouldn't reveal any emotions or feelings.

He rose from the sofa and headed for the door. "It was nice meeting you again, Sakura. Maybe I'll see you again tomorrow at the lake." Then he walked out the door and left her sitting on the sofa completely confused and alone.

She didn't even realised she had been holding her breath before she actually let it out in a deep sigh. What was that? She touched her chest and could feel the heat from her blushing cheeks.

Their faces had been only inches apart and his face had been completely calm and disguised. What a strange man.